Living in today’s world, it’s nearly impossible to meet society’s beauty standards considering how often and quickly they change and how unrealistic they can be. Most of us spend an ungodly amount of time painting our faces, plucking our eyebrows just so we can be presentable and not come across as someone who just emerged from a cave somewhere.
Beauty standards have changed drastically over the years, shifting into so many different forms that some trends that were extremely popular in the past are now considered to be absolutely outdated. Don’t believe us? Well, the following trends will leave you in shock.
#1 - Unibrows
For the Greeks, unibrows were THE look. The people of Ancient Greece considered women with unibrows to be pure and intelligent. And the women who were born without a unibrow, they’d draw a fake one on their foreheads using kohl pigment for a “bold” and “beautiful” look. On top of that, when mourning the death of a family member, they would shave off their eyebrows. This last bit, however, was revealed by the Greek historian Herodotus but hasn’t been backed up by any additional evidence.
Nickolas Muray | Remember Frida Kahlo and her infamous unibrow?
#2 - Black Teeth
This has got to be one of the weirdest trends to have ever existed in the history of time. Since pitch-black objects were once deemed pretty, the women of Japan considered black teeth as a symbol of beauty too. Hence, after marriage, women would get their teeth blackened to represent a marital commitment. Following the age of 15, Japanese boys and girls would also blacken their teeth to signify their coming of age.
Pop Japan | Though this trend is widely outdated, some Japanese women still swear by it
#3 - Men’s Calves
In today’s world, women’s legs are admired more than that of men, but in the Middle Ages, it was the other way round. Stockings were a huge part of men's attire because they would want to show off their shapely calves. Some men would go as far as placing pads inside their stockings to enhance the size of their calves for self-satisfaction. Overcompensating for something? We hope not!
Quora | King Henry VIII happened to be well-known for his remarkable calves.
Looking at these old beauty trends, can you think of any modern-day standards that would sound absolutely ridiculous in a few decades?
